U.S. Oil Sands - in naming several new members to its Board - also announced it has received $80 million in "strategic financing" from Blue Pacific Investments Group Ltd., Anchorage Capital Group, L.L.C. and Spitfire Ventures, LLC.

"Clinton was borrowing [Giustra's private jet] to begin a four-day speaking tour of Latin America that would pay him $800,000," Bloomberg detailed. "Frank Giustra...was forming a friendship that would make him part of the former president's inner circle and gain him introductions to presidents of Kazakhstan and Colombia."

Clinton's effort to connect Giustra to former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe was related to oil developments.

"Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp., spent more than $250 million to purchase control of a company that operated Colombian oil fields in conjunction with Ecopetrol S.A., the national oil company," explained The Wall Street Journal. "Pacific Rubiales has also signed a pipeline deal with Ecopetrol and been invited by the Colombian national petroleum agency to do further oil-development work in the country."

Paralleling their Colombia activities, Clinton played the role of "doorman," opening doors for Giustra to meet key leaders in the giant Central Asian state.

"Within two days [of the beginning of the trip], corporate records show that Mr. Giustra also came up a winner when his company [UrAsia Energy Ltd.] signed preliminary agreements giving it the right to buy into three uranium projects controlled by Kazakhstan’s state-owned uranium agency, Kazatomprom," wrote The Times.

"The monster deal stunned the mining industry, turning an unknown shell company into one of the world’s largest uranium producers in a transaction ultimately worth tens of millions of dollars to Mr. Giustra."

Like in Colombia, the deal was a win-win for Clinton and Giustra.

"Just months after the Kazakh pact was finalized, Mr. Clinton’s charitable foundation received its own windfall: a $31.3 million donation from Mr. Giustra," The Times further explained.

"The gift, combined with Mr. Giustra’s more recent and public pledge to give the William J. Clinton Foundation an additional $100 million, secured Mr. Giustra a place in Mr. Clinton’s inner circle...Giustra [also] co-produced a gala 60th birthday for Mr. Clinton that featured stars like Jon Bon Jovi and raised about $21 million for the Clinton Foundation."

Within a year and a half, Giustra sold off his stake in the Kazatomprom joint venture for $3.1 billion, which he had originally purchased for $450 million.

Giustra, Clinton Opening Doors for US Tar Sands Development?

With their history of partnering up on business deals worldwide, front-line Utah environmental activists fear the Uintah Basin could be next on the list for Frank Giustra and Bill Clinton.

"There have been efforts to squeeze oil from the tar sands and oil shale along the Colorado Plateau for decades, and ultimately these projects fail due to their experimental, energy intensive, and risky nature," Jessica Lee, an activist with Peaceful Uprising and Utah Tar Sands Resistance said in an interview withDeSmogBlog.

Giustra's presence on the Board, Lee believes, may give U.S. tar sands the credibility they currently lack in the eyes of capital investors.

"The real risk here is that investors will view Giustra and the other board members involvement as attractive, and will throw their own money away into a speculative investment," she said. "Frank Giustra will not stay behind to clean up the mess U.S. Oil Sands leaves, pocketing whatever money he can and leaving Utah with a wasteland."

This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.

U.S. Oil Sands - in naming several new members to its Board - also announced it has received $80 million in "strategic financing" from Blue Pacific Investments Group Ltd., Anchorage Capital Group, L.L.C. and Spitfire Ventures, LLC.

"Clinton was borrowing [Giustra's private jet] to begin a four-day speaking tour of Latin America that would pay him $800,000," Bloomberg detailed. "Frank Giustra...was forming a friendship that would make him part of the former president's inner circle and gain him introductions to presidents of Kazakhstan and Colombia."

Clinton's effort to connect Giustra to former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe was related to oil developments.

"Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp., spent more than $250 million to purchase control of a company that operated Colombian oil fields in conjunction with Ecopetrol S.A., the national oil company," explained The Wall Street Journal. "Pacific Rubiales has also signed a pipeline deal with Ecopetrol and been invited by the Colombian national petroleum agency to do further oil-development work in the country."

Paralleling their Colombia activities, Clinton played the role of "doorman," opening doors for Giustra to meet key leaders in the giant Central Asian state.

"Within two days [of the beginning of the trip], corporate records show that Mr. Giustra also came up a winner when his company [UrAsia Energy Ltd.] signed preliminary agreements giving it the right to buy into three uranium projects controlled by Kazakhstan’s state-owned uranium agency, Kazatomprom," wrote The Times.

"The monster deal stunned the mining industry, turning an unknown shell company into one of the world’s largest uranium producers in a transaction ultimately worth tens of millions of dollars to Mr. Giustra."

Like in Colombia, the deal was a win-win for Clinton and Giustra.

"Just months after the Kazakh pact was finalized, Mr. Clinton’s charitable foundation received its own windfall: a $31.3 million donation from Mr. Giustra," The Times further explained.

"The gift, combined with Mr. Giustra’s more recent and public pledge to give the William J. Clinton Foundation an additional $100 million, secured Mr. Giustra a place in Mr. Clinton’s inner circle...Giustra [also] co-produced a gala 60th birthday for Mr. Clinton that featured stars like Jon Bon Jovi and raised about $21 million for the Clinton Foundation."

Within a year and a half, Giustra sold off his stake in the Kazatomprom joint venture for $3.1 billion, which he had originally purchased for $450 million.

Giustra, Clinton Opening Doors for US Tar Sands Development?

With their history of partnering up on business deals worldwide, front-line Utah environmental activists fear the Uintah Basin could be next on the list for Frank Giustra and Bill Clinton.

"There have been efforts to squeeze oil from the tar sands and oil shale along the Colorado Plateau for decades, and ultimately these projects fail due to their experimental, energy intensive, and risky nature," Jessica Lee, an activist with Peaceful Uprising and Utah Tar Sands Resistance said in an interview withDeSmogBlog.

Giustra's presence on the Board, Lee believes, may give U.S. tar sands the credibility they currently lack in the eyes of capital investors.

"The real risk here is that investors will view Giustra and the other board members involvement as attractive, and will throw their own money away into a speculative investment," she said. "Frank Giustra will not stay behind to clean up the mess U.S. Oil Sands leaves, pocketing whatever money he can and leaving Utah with a wasteland."

This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.